January 2014

As our story begins, the year is 1976. Two extremely bright Englishmen — composer, musical theorist, ex-ROXY MUSIC electronics specialist and soon-to-be-legendary record producer BRIAN ENO, and KING CRIMSON guitarist ROBERT FRIPP team up to produce the music you're hearing, from what will come to be a very influential album called EVENING STAR.

On this hour of Hearts of Space, a mostly retrospective look at the early years of Ambient music, inspired by the Virgin Records compilation A BRIEF HISTORY OF AMBIENT. It's a chronicle of an idea that after over 20 years is not only doing very well, thank you, but propagating new creative strains that keep sprouting up across the spectrum of today's music.

The story of the resonant percussion family is as unusual as it is old. The metallophones — bells, bowls, gongs and cymbals — have been used as ceremonial instruments by the world's religions for centuries, especially in the mountain Buddhist cultures of China and Tibet, and the Christian monasteries of Europe. They make sounds that exist at the borders of the physical and the spiritual: ethereal and psychoactive, calming and stimulating, all at once.

Bells sound particularly right in the cold, clear winter air. The crystalline structures of ice and snow seem to echo the crystalline metals of the instruments. The pure overtones of bells and bowls are the essence of clarity, while the rich harmonic sound fields of gongs and cymbals are like gray winter clouds and fog.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, a winter journey for contemplative percussion, on a program called MYSTIC METALS. Music is by HIMALAYAN VOICES, PARADISO & RASAMAYI, KARMA MOFFETT, STEVE BRAND, HAROLD BUDD, RICHARD RUDIS, BRIAN ENO, and DEUTER.

The word comes from the Greek and means "song of praise." From ancient origins in religious ritual, the hymn became a container for humanity's fondest dreams; an elevated vehicle for affirmation, prayer and hope. Simple, emotional, poetic, and spiritual — the hymn is a unifying force.

With this exalted background you wouldn't expect the word "oblivion" — from the Latin to forget, meaning the state of being forgotten, or being completely unaware — would have anything to do with hymns. But when the Southern Ambient/post-rock group HAMMOCK chose a title for their most ambitious recording to date, they used the incongruous, but precise combination OBLIVION HYMNS.

As you'll hear on this transmission of Hearts of Space called OBLIVION HYMNS, we'll discover another kind of oblivion — a rarified realm where music can make you forget your self.

This week a frigid mass of North Pole air spun south and descended on the United States. In addition to sub-zero temperatures, disruption of travel and general misery, it introduced a new phrase to describe extreme winter weather.

We were working on an Ambient electronic winter show and we already had a pretty good title for it, but this new phrase, well, it just blew it away. On this transmission of Hearts of Space, a super-chilled winter journey called POLAR VORTEX. Music is by IAN BODDY & ERIK WOLLO, SIMON LOMAX, STORMLOOP, DILATE, TUU, and NETHERWORLD.

The austere folk music of Norway and the Scandinavian countries has a paradox at its heart: in a land of frigid Arctic winters and stark, glacial landscapes, the music overflows with warmth and beauty. And while the winter days are dark, the nights are illuminated with the intoxicating spectacle of the northern lights.